1969 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 - Perfection Vs. Preservation

When planning the resurrection of a muscle car, it's a good idea to define the restoration parameters you want. One common school of thought is to restore a car to perfection. This philosophy advocates the correction of assembly line mistakes—overspray, ugly welds, sloppy seam sealer—in the quest for a car that is better than the factory could have ever built. Among the elite restorers in the nation, this approach is favored and certainly appeals to those committed to building the very best example of a particular marque.

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These cars weren't show cars when they were built

In contrast to the perfection restoration is the preservation restoration. The advocates of this approach relish the uniqueness of each car as it was built by the manufacturer. Oft-spurned factory blemishes or production line compromises create a unique fingerprint for every car. This clan strives to truly return a car to its exact, authentic, as-born status. The task involves much more painstaking disassembly, the making of photographic records, and the recording of construction techniques. Disassembly is a treasure hunt for factory imperfections and hidden abnormalities.

My sense is that highly skilled restorers given to preservation are in the minority, so finding a shop that is dedicated to a preservation restoration can be daunting. One of those shops is the Super Car Workshop in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Owner Brian Henderson is well known among Chevrolet fans, especially Yenko owners.

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"When we restore them, I try to replicate what we see, no more, no less," says Henderson. "We seek accuracy in the restoration to return the car to the way it was born. We take a lot of pictures before the teardown stage. The goal is to see how the car was assembled. The cars are often very different. It's like going on an archeological dig. If you are going on an archeological dig, you are not going to go in there with a bulldozer; you're bringing a pail and shovel."

Finding a dirty, greasy car is usually preferred over one that's clean and shiny, explains Henderson. "I'm not trying to rewrite the script, I'm trying to follow the script. To me, the differences are what set the car apart. I like the human element that is built into the car. That way the historical record of the car is intact."

Henderson added some vintage speed parts to set the car apart

Jeff Murphy owns this LeMans Blue ZL1 Camaro, number 49 of the limited number built. The car had been a race car, then restored and brought back to stock condition. To the untrained eye, the car looked very presentable, but upon closer examination Murphy realized that his rare Camaro had been "restored badly."

When Murphy first bought the car in 2003, he took it to a couple shows and drag raced it, but in his words, "Every time I raced it, something broke." He sought advice from Henderson, who advised him to restore the car correctly and completely to both preserve the car accurately and make it safe to drive.

"If we duplicate what was done at the factory, we're never wrong," says Henderson. "These cars were built by people, not robots. To take that away—to dress every weld, to fix every flaw—goes beyond restoration to modification. I want the car restored to the way it was built. Ultimately it's a tribute to the factory workers at Norwood and Los Angeles. It sounds a bit corny, but you are trying to preserve for future generations what these cars really looked like—the assembly line techniques, keeping true to the way GM made them. These cars weren't show cars when they were built."

4/18<strong>1</strong>. The ZL1 was completely disassembled and carefully photographed for any remaining factory assembly marks. Since this car had already been restored a few times, those clues were more difficult to find. After the car was stripped, a sealer was applied and bodywork was completed as needed. Eventually the shell was masked at the rockers to properly paint the undercarriage.

5/18<strong>2</strong>. The undercarriage was painted in the primer colors as applied at the factory and then in satin black, “pulling away from flat,” as Brian Henderson describes it. It is just a little glossier than the subframe.

6/18<strong>3</strong>. The car was tipped slightly and body color paint “oversprayed” on the undercarriage. The amount of overspray applied depends on how much was applied at the factory. Says Henderson, “We are working on a Gibb/Harrell Nova where the overspray is about 2 inches in on one side, and the other side is almost to the tunnel. That’s the way the car came from the factory, and that’s the way we painted that Nova.”

7/18<strong>4</strong>. The shell is ready for color at this stage. Doors and trunk lid are not hanging on a stand, they are attached to the shell. The firewall is masked in a way similar to how the factory applied paint, anticipating engine compartment black for the firewall.

8/18<strong>5</strong>. Although the cars were originally painted in lacquer at the GM plant, Henderson is not sure about the future availability of lacquer. Super Car Workshop uses a basecoat/clearcoat system. Through experimentation, they have been able to make that system retain the “thin” lacquer look with a slight hint of orange peel that is close to how the cars looked with factory lacquer paint.

9/18<strong>6</strong>. Henderson explains, “If we can’t see the markings on a firewall because someone has already restored the car and painted the firewall gloss black, we will take the sandblaster down to superlow pressure, so the sand is just dancing off the firewall to remove the paint, and hopefully see remains of markings.”

10/18<strong>7</strong>. A number of markings were written on the bare steel firewall. Written in grease pencil, this “B BLU” marking indicates the color. Since this car is a code 71 LeMans Blue, the origin of the abbreviation would be speculation.

11/18<strong>8</strong>. To duplicate factory-appearance runs, Henderson says, “I will slow the gun down through the tunnel. I will take two or three passes to make sure the car has even color, but then I will slow the gun down to get the runs started in the same area. We do not change the paint, just let it go.”

12/18<strong>9</strong>. Even though this area will not be seen once covered by the heater box, attention to detail means making this blower motor hole in the firewall as authentic as the day it rolled off the assembly line.

13/18<strong>10</strong>. These A&A hoods were used on Dick Harrell cars in 1967 and 1968. The hood is called Stiletto, and it still had “67-68” written in grease pencil on it when located. Jeff Murphy has the factory hood and all other OE parts tucked away. The car could be returned to bone stock over a long weekend.

14/18<strong>11</strong>. These particular inspection marks appear on ’68 and ’69 cars only on the firewalls. P stands for paint, B for body, and T for trim. When everything was golden, the cars received those stamps. Henderson explains that those marks were either bright green or orange, and it is possible that the different colors designate a certain shift. He believes these inspection marks were unique to Norwood cars.

15/18<strong>12</strong>. The date on the subframe records the day it was manufactured, not the build date of the car. Fasteners, markings, and weld quality are retained, says Henderson. “To dress every weld or fix every error is a modification. Welds dressed with a flat file is cool to me. You know that cars were coming down the line, and there was a guy who dressed a weld best that he could.”

16/18<strong>13</strong>. The driveshaft striping identifies the particular application. Henderson had to rely on knowledge gained from previous restorations with the 427/Turbo 400 drivetrain combination to properly replicate these stripes.

17/18<strong>14</strong>. Murphy was not only interested in the history of the cars as produced at the factory, but also the history of how the ZL1 cars were used after purchase. Many of them were drag raced. For that reason, he has added some vintage speed parts to set the car apart and accurately represent its race career.